The present invention relates to a reactor, especially a tube reactor, its use in a process for the continuous preparation of polymers, in particular synthetic rubbers, and also the abovementioned process itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,925 discloses a heat exchanger which has an essentially tubular housing having a vertical central shaft. The heat exchanger has a scraper which, with the aid of scraper blades, runs along an interior side of the housing.
A disadvantage of such a heat exchanger is that it is difficult to use as tube reactor for a continuous polymerization since the reaction conditions can be monitored and influenced only with great difficulty. In particular, it is not readily possible to set a desired molecular weight distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,960 discloses a polymerization reactor which has an essentially tubular housing with a stirrer drum which rotates within the reactor housing and whose surface is equipped with paddles to promote mixing of the reactants, and which is equipped with an internal gamma radiation source.
A disadvantage of the aforementioned reactor is the fact that the withdrawal of product is only incomplete or inhomogeneous particularly in the case of viscoelastic materials, such as synthetic rubbers in particular.